Extreme Events Assessment Methodology Coupling Debris Flow, Flooding and Tidal Levels in the Coastal Floodplain of the San Paulo North Coast (Brazil)

The North Coastal Region of the State of São Paulo, which comprises the Municipalities of Caraguatatuba, São Sebas-tião, Ilhabela and Ubatuba, is one of the most prone to flooding and debris flow deposition Brazilian areas, owing to hydrological extreme rainfall events usually coupled with extreme tidal levels. This risk is also high due to human lives and material assets, with increasing population rates and the establishment of large Companies such as the Oil industry, with reduced defense/prevention measures and works. The catastrophic scenario of the city of Caraguatatuba, in March 1967, resulting from one of the most serious natural disasters in Brazil, fosters discussions about probabilities of heavy rainfall-caused events and rise in the sea level in coastal areas. Hence, this research is a consequence of this reality. The research is founded on an innovative methodology based on the analysis of past data of rainfall and tidal stations, complemented with debris flow registers in the region of the North coastal zone of the State of São Paulo (Brazil). The analysis developed involved the meteorological, hydraulic, geotechnical and statistical knowledge areas. Practical results are intended to be used for urban planning, designs of macro-drainage, fluvial, maritime projects and debris flow retention structures. These practical applications will then associate the probability of occurrence of certain types of heavy rainfall-caused events such as flooding or debris flow coupled with a corresponding increase in tidal level

Microfluidic analysis techniques for safety assessment of pharmaceutical nano- and microsystems

This chapter reviews the evolution of microfabrication methods and materials, applicable to manufacturing of micro total analysis systems (or lab‐on‐a‐chip), from a general perspective. It discusses the possibilities and limitations associated with microfluidic cell culturing, or so called organ‐on‐a‐chip technology, together with selected examples of their exploitation to characterization of pharmaceutical nano‐ and microsystems. Materials selection plays a pivotal role in terms of ensuring the cell adhesion and viability as well as defining the prevailing culture conditions inside the microfluidic channels. The chapter focuses on the hepatic safety assessment of nanoparticles and gives an overview of the development of microfluidic immobilized enzyme reactors that could facilitate examination of the hepatic effects of nanomedicines under physiologically relevant conditions. It also provides an overview of the future prospects regarding system‐level integration possibilities facilitated by microfabrication of miniaturized separation and sample preparation systems as integral parts of microfluidic in vitro models.Non peer reviewe

Extreme Events Assessment Methodology Coupling Rainfall and Tidal Levels in the Coastal Flood Plain of the Sao Paulo North Coast (Brazil) for Engineering Projects Purposes

The North Coastal Region of the State of São Paulo, which comprises the Municipalities of Caraguatatuba, São Sebastião, Ilhabela and Ubatuba, is one of the most prone to flooding Brazilian areas, owing to hydrological extreme rainfall events usually coupled with extreme tidal levels. This risk is also high due to human lives and material assets, with increasing population rates and the settling of large Companies such as the Oil industry, with reduced defense measures and works. The catastrophic scenario of the city of Caraguatatuba, in March of 1967, resulted from one of the most serious natural disasters in Brazil, fosters discussions about probabilities of rainfall events and rise in the sea level in coastal areas. Hence, this research is a consequence of this reality. The research presented is founded on an innovative methodology based on the analysis of past data of rainfall stations and tidal stations in the region of the North coastal zone of the State of São Paulo (Brazil). The analysis developed approached the meteorological, hydraulic and statistical knowledge areas. Practical results were used for designing macro-drainage, fluvial and maritime projects, that associate the probability of occurrence of certain types of rainfall coupled with their corresponding increase in tidal level

Search for a Variation of the Fine Structure Constant around the Supermassive Black Hole in Our Galactic Center

International audienceSearching for space-time variations of the constants of Nature is a promising way to search for new physics beyond general relativity and the standard model motivated by unification theories and models of dark matter and dark energy. We propose a new way to search for a variation of the fine-structure constant using measurements of late-type evolved giant stars from the S star cluster orbiting the supermassive black hole in our Galactic Center. A measurement of the difference between distinct absorption lines (with different sensitivity to the fine structure constant) from a star leads to a direct estimate of a variation of the fine structure constant between the star’s location and Earth. Using spectroscopic measurements of five stars, we obtain a constraint on the relative variation of the fine structure constant below 10-5. This is the first time a varying constant of nature is searched for around a black hole and in a high gravitational potential. This analysis shows new ways the monitoring of stars in the Galactic Center can be used to probe fundamental physics